大学英语精读_双语5 (8)

Unit Eight
第八单元
A victim of an incurable disease,Stephen Hawking is almost completely paralysed,
一个无法治愈的疾病的受害者，Stephen Hawking 几乎完全的瘫痪了。
confined to a wheelchair,and unable to speak.
被限制在一个轮椅里，不能去说话。
Yet,he has overcome every obstacle and achieved far more than most ablebodied people ever dream of accomplishing and become one of the greatest physicists of our time.
然而他已经克服了每一个障碍取得了比健全的人曾经梦想完成的东西更多的东西，在我们的时代里，成为了一个最伟大的物理学家。
ROAMING THE COSMOS
漫游宇宙
by leon jaroff
利昂·杰罗夫
Darkness has fallen on Cambridge,England,and on a damp and chilly evening King's Parade is filled with students and faculty.
英格兰剑桥的天空已经黑下来。在一个潮湿，阴冷的晚上，“国王广场”上挤满了学生和老师们。
Then,down the crowded thoroughfare comes the University of Cambridge's most distinctive vehicle,
此时，沿着挤满人群的大道上驶来一辆剑桥大学里最与众不同的车子，
bearing its most distinguished citizen.
载着最杰出的公民。
In the motorized wheelchair,boyish face dimly illuminated by a glowing computer screed attached to the left armrest,
在这辆电动轮椅车里，他那孩子气的脸被装在轮椅左手扶把上发亮的计算机屏幕隐隐约约地映照出来，
is Stephen William Hawking,46,one of the world's greatest theoretical physicists.
这就是斯蒂芬·威廉·霍金，四十六岁，世界上最伟大的理论物理学家之一。
As he skillfully maneuvers through the crowd,motorists slow down,some honking their horns in greeting.
当他熟练地驾着轮椅穿过人群时，开汽车的放慢了车速，有的按喇叭致意。
People wave and shout hello.
人们挥手或大声向他问候。
A huge smile lights up Hawking's bespectacled face,but he cannot wave or shout back.
霍金戴着眼镜面露笑容，但他无法挥手或回喊答礼。
Since his early 20s,he has suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis(ALS),
他二十刚出头时就患上肌萎缩性脊髓侧索硬化症（ＡＬＳ），
a progressive deterioration of the central nervous system that usually causes death within three of four years.
这是一种中枢神经系统逐渐退化的病。病人通常在三、四年内死亡。
Hawking's illness has advanced more slowly,and now seems almost to have stabilized.
霍金的病情进展很缓慢，而现在看来几乎已经稳定下来。
Still,it has robbed him of virtually all movement.
但仍使霍金丧失了差不多全部的实际活动能力。
He has no control over most of his muscles,cannot dress of eat by himself and has lost his voice.
他无法控制大部分肌肉，自己不能穿衣吃饭，失去了说话能力。
Now he "speaks"only by using the slight voluntary movement left in his ha

nds and fingers to operate his wheelchair's built-in computer and voice synthesizer.
现在他“说话”只有靠使用他的手和手指上还剩下的微弱的随意活动能力来操纵装在轮椅上的计算机和声音合成器进行的。
While ALS has made Hawking a virtual prisoner in his own body,it has left his courage and humor intact his intellect free to roam.
尽管他的这种ＡＬＳ病使他身体丧失实际的活动能力，他的勇气和幽默却仍然完美无缺，他的智力任其自由漫游。
And roam it does,from the infinitesimal to the infinite,from the subatomic realm to the far reaches of the universe.
他的智力确实在漫游：从无穷小到无穷大，从亚原子王国到宇宙宽广的领域。
In the course of these mental expeditions,
霍金在这些智力远征过程中
Hawking has conceived startling new theories about black holes and the disorderly events that immediately followed the Big Bang from which the universe sprang.
想出了一些令人吃惊的新理论，描述了黑洞及紧跟着形成宇宙“大爆炸”而出现的杂乱无章的事件。
More recently,he has shaken both physicists and theologians by suggesting that the universe has no boundaries,was not created and will not be destroyed.
而在最近，他提出了令物理学家和神学家震惊的意见：宇宙没有边界，它不是创造出来的，因而将来也不会毁灭的。
Most of Stephen Hawking's innovative thinking occurs at Cambridge,where he is Lucasian professof of mathematice,a seat once occupied by Isaac Newton.
斯蒂芬·霍金的大部分创新思想是在剑桥大学确立的。他是剑桥大学罗卡斯数学教授，艾萨克·牛顿曾担任过这个职位。
There ,in the Department of Mathematics and Theoretical Physics,he benevolently reigns over the relativity group,
在该校数学和理论物理系，霍金和蔼可亲地领导着一个由
15 overachieving graduate students from nine countries.
来自九个国家十五个成绩优异的研究生组成的相对论小组。
On his office door is a small plaque irreverently reading QUIET,PLEASE.THE BOSS IS ASLEEP.
在他办公室门上有一块小装饰板，上面不太恭敬地写着：请保持安静，老板在睡觉。
Hardly,From midmorning until he departs for dinner around 7 p.m.,Hawking follows a routine that would tax the most able-bodied,
那大概不是真实的。霍金的日常生活是从上午十点左右开始一直到下午七点左右才离去吃饭，这对强壮能干的人来说也是很重的负担
working in his book-lined office,amid photographs of his wife Jane and their three children.
他工作在摆满书籍，中间还有他妻子珍妮和他们三个孩子的办公室里。
When he rolled into the department's common room one morning last month,his students were talking shop around low tables.
上月的一天上午，霍金驾着轮椅到了系的公共休息室，他的学生们正围在

一张张矮桌子谈论着本行的一些事情。
Maneuvering to one of the tables,Hawking clicked his control switch,
敏捷地操纵着轮椅来到一张桌子前，霍金卡嗒一声按下控制开关，
evoking tiny beeps from his computer and selecting words from lists displayed on his screen.
他的计算机就发出轻微的嘟嘟声；他从计算机屏幕上显示出来的单词表中选择了一些词。
These words,assembled in sequence at the bottom of the sereen,finally issued from the voice synthesizer:"Good morning!Can I have a coffee?"
这些词在屏幕下方一个接一个地排列好，最后通过声音合成器说出来：“早上好！我可以来杯咖啡吗？”
2A 17:16-17:20
(The synthesizer is produced by a California company.)
（声音合成器是美国加利福尼亚一家公司制造的。）
When the conversation shifted to creativity and how mathematicians seem to reach a creative peak in their early 20s,
当谈论的话题转到创造力及数学家看来在他们二十出头就达到创造力顶峰时，
Hawking's computer beeped."I'm over the hill,"he said,to a chorus of laughter.
霍金的计算机发出嘟嘟声。他说：“我已过了顶峰。”他的话引得大家放声大笑。
Hawking was born on Jan.8,1942-300 years to the day,he often notes,after the death of Galileo.
霍金生于一九四二年一月八日——他常常提起，伽利略就在三百年前的这一天去世的。
As a small boy,he was slow to learn to read but liked to take things apart though he confesses that he was never very good at putting things back together.
小时候，他学习读书很迟钝，而喜欢把东西拆开，但他承认从来不善于把拆开的东西装回原样。
When he was twelve,he recalls humorously,“one of my friends bet another friend a bag of sweets that I would never come to anything.
他幽默地回忆起：“十二岁那年，我有一个朋友以一包糖跟另一个朋友打赌，认为我将来不会有什么出息的。
I don't know if this bet was ever settied and ,if so,who won.”
我不知道这次打赌是否已解决；如果解决了，也不知谁赢了。”
Fascinated by physics,Stephen concentrated in the subject at Oxford's University College,but did not distinguish himself.
由于迷上了物理学，斯蒂芬在牛津大学学院集中精力学习这门学科，但成绩并不出色。
He partied,took a great interest in rowing and studied only an hour or so a day.
他参加的是社交聚会，感兴趣的是划船，而每天花在学习上的时间仅仅一小时左右。
Moving on to Cambridge for graduate work in relativity,he found the going rough.
到剑桥大学读研究生时，他从事相对论研究。他觉得学得很艰难，
partly because of some puzzling physical problems;he stumbled frequently and seemed to be getting clumsy.
部分原因是他身体有病令他困惑；他时常跌倒，并且似乎逐渐变得笨拙起

来。
Doctors soon gave him the had news:he had ALS,it would only get worse,and there was no cure.Hawking was overwhelmed.
很快，医生告诉他这个坏消息：他得的是ＡＬＳ病，而且病情只会越来越糟，却无法治愈。霍金不知所措。
Before long,he needed a cane to walk,was drinking heavily and ignoring his studies.
没有多久，他需要拐杖走路，还开始酗酒，而对学习却置之不理。
"There didn't seem to be much point in completing my Ph.D.,"he says.
他说，“当时看来，完成我的博士学位没有什么用处了。”
Then Hawking's luck turned.The progress of the disease slowed,and Einsteinian space-time suddenly seemed less formidable.
然而，霍金的运气改变了。他病情进展缓慢下来。而且爱因斯坦的时－空理论突然似乎不那么难以对付了。
But what really made the difference,he says,“was that I got engaged to Jane,”who was studying modern languages at Cambridge.
但他说：“真正有重要影响的是我与珍妮订婚了。”当时珍妮正在剑桥大学学习现代语言。
"This gave me something to live for."As the explains,"If we were to get married,I had to get a job.
“这给了我生活的目的。”正象他解释的那样：“如果我们准备结婚，我得有工作做。
And to get a job,I had to finish my Ph.D. I started working hard for the first time in my life.
而要得到工作就不得不完成博士学位。我开始一生中第一次刻苦学习。
To my surprise,I found I liked it."
使我感到惊奇的是，我发现我喜欢刻苦了。”
What particularly interested Stephen was singularities,strange beasts predicted by general relativity.
特别引起斯蒂芬兴趣的是奇点，这是广义相对论中所预言的怪物。
Einstein's equations indicated that when a star several times lager than the sun exhausts its nuclear fuel and collapses,
爱因斯坦的方程式指出，当比太阳大几倍的一颗星星消耗尽其核燃料并瓦解时，
its matter crushes together at its center with such force that it forms a singularity,an infinitel dense point with no dimensions and irresistible gravity.
它的物质在巨大力量的作用下向中心挤压在一起，从而形成一个奇点，一个没有维度而具有无限密度和不可抗拒的引力的点。
A voluminous region surrounding the singularity becomes a “black hole,”from which-because of that immense gravity-nothing,not even light,can escape.
围绕着奇点的一个广大区域成为一个“黑洞”，由于巨大的引力，任何东西，甚至光也不例外，无法脱离“黑洞”。
Scientists years ago found compelling evidence that black holes exist,but they were uncomfortable with singularities,
多年前，科学家发现了黑洞存在的令人信服的证据。但是他们对奇点感到不自在，
because all scientific laws break down at these points.
因为所有科学法则在这些点上

不起作用。
Most physicists believed that in the real universe the object at the heart of a black hole would be small(but not dimensionless)and extremely dense(but not infinitely so).
大多数科学家相信在实际宇宙里，在一个黑洞中心的物体将会是很小的（但不是没有维度的），而密度极大（但不是无限大）。
Enter Hawking.
这时，霍金登台了。
While still a graduate student,he and Mathematician Roger Penrose developed new techniques proving mathematically that if general relativity is correct
当霍金还是一名研究生时，他和数学家罗杰·彭罗斯揭示了一些新的方法来进行数学论证：如果广义相对论是正确的，
singularities must exist.
那末奇点就必定存在。
Hawking went on to demonstrate-again if general relativity is correct-that the entire universe must have sprung from a singularity.
霍金继续论证——再次假定广义相对论是正确的——整个宇宙必定是从一个奇点爆炸而形成的。
As he wrote in his 1966 Ph.D.thesis,"There is a singularity in our past."
如同他在一九六六年博士论文中写的那样：“我们过去曾有一个奇点。”
Stephen later discerned several new characteristics of black holes and demonstrated that the amazing forces of the Big Bang would have created mini-black holes,
后来，斯蒂芬认识到黑洞的几个新特点并论证了“大爆炸”惊人的力量会产生一些微型黑洞，
each with a mass about that of a terrestrial mountain,but on larger that the subatonic proton.
每个微型黑洞的质量约等于地球上一座大山的质量，但不会大于亚原子的质子。
Then,applying the quantum theory (which accurately describes the random,uncertain subatonic world) instead of general relativity(which,it turns out ,falters in that tiny realm),
另外，霍金在应用量子理论（这种理论精确地叙述了不规则的，不确定的亚原子世界）替代了广义相对论（它被证明在这极小的领域中失去作用）后，
Hawking was startled to find that the mini-black holes must emit particles and radiation.
惊奇地发现微型黑洞必定放射粒子和辐射线。
Even more remarkable,the little holes would gradually evaporate and,10 billion years or so after their creation,
更令人奇怪的是，这些微型黑洞会渐渐蒸发并在他们形成后一百亿年左右
explode with the energy of millions of H-bombs.
以几百万枚氢弹的能量发生爆炸。
Hawking has visited the U.S.30 times,made seven trips to MOscow,taken a round-the-world journey ,and piloted his wheelchair on the Great Wall of China.
霍金访问美国三十次，到过莫斯科七次，进行环球旅行一次，并驾着轮椅上了中国长城。
On the road,the activities occasionally deviate somewhat from physics.
在旅途中，偶尔他会参加一些与物理学无关的活动。
Ond night Stephen accompanied a group to a Chic

ago discotheque,
一天晚上，斯蒂芬陪着一个团体去芝加哥一家用唱片伴奏的舞厅。
where he joined in the festivities by wheeling onto the dance floor and spinning his chair in circles.
他同大家一起娱乐：驾着轮椅车进了舞池并转了一圈又一圈。
Recently,Hawking,who has no qualms about recanting his own work if he decides he was wrong,may have transcended his famous proof that singularities exist.
最近，霍金，这位一旦确定自己错了会毫不迟疑地放弃自己成果的人，可能已超越他关于存在奇点的著名论证。
With Physicist James Hartle,he has derived a quantum wave descibing a sel-contained universe that,
与物理学家詹姆斯·哈特尔一起，他已获得一个描述独立宇宙的量子波。
like the earth's surface,has not edge or boundary.
这个独立宇宙象地球的表面那样没有边缘，没有边界。
If that is the case,says hawking,Einstein's general theory of relativity would have to be modified,and there would be no singularities.
霍金说，假如事实是那样的话，爱因斯坦的广义相对理论将不得不作修改，而奇点就不复存在了。
"The universe would not be created,not be destroyed;it would simply be,"”
“宇宙是不会创造出来的，也不会毁灭；它会一直存在下去。”
he concludes,adding challengingly,"What place,then ,for a Creator?"
他挑战性地总结说：“那么，造物主又会在什么地方呢？”